Hiring seems to be like a big pain for an organization. Twitter and other platforms have many postings by various founders.
Hiring is not an art or a science. It is more to do with treating humans as they are. Most of these companies treat engineers as resources with salary being key incentives. This incentive works until your competitor pays them 2X-5X because he has raised a lot of money.
To hire and keep your team motivated you to have to be honest with them and treat them like a stakeholder. They should feel like part of the big operating system. Some founders tend to get good early employees by following this principle. As they grow and demand from investors changes, they forget the principle. That is the time when many old veterans leave and yes the incentives of ESOP does no good.